Dealing with vintage besson intonation and response
I listen closely to the ensemble around me. I can bend the intonation of my horn very easily and know which notes have the most issues. I find that solid support will allow the horn to sing. If I relax my support intonation gets really squirrelly.
Mouthpieces, for me, seem to have an effect (all large shank). Many years ago I played with a 6 1/2A then a 5G which matched the horn fairly well. Lately I switched to a 51D and found it had a little too much backpressure and my tone was stuffy, so I bored it out to increase the air flow and size of the air column. This helped the overall intonation quite a bit. I have tried a 3G and Lehman M, but the rim diameters conflict with my teeth and they did not work out. I also found my tone sounded like a cotton ball. Maybe some more time on a larger mouthpiece would help, but I like the way things are working, especially after boring out the 51D.
I also had some issues with "stuffy" notes with intonation issues added in. This turned out to be valve alignment. Carefully adjusting everything evened out the intonation quite a bit.
My high register, on my New Standard, needs solid support. When I anything higher than Eb I really have to focus on the air flow and keeping the support up. Actually, the whole range needs solid support. If you fall off your support the intonation is all over the place. When I have the room vibrating (china, duct work, windows ) my tuner says I am within a couple cents. Ensemble work can get interesting, but the New Standard is so easy to bend around you can adjust really fast to whatever is happening. I tend to place my slides so I'm a little sharp so when I fall off my support or get tired the intonation tends to drop in.
Hope that helps.
For what it is worth, I have heard that some New Standard's are good, others are not so much. I'm my be lucky to have a good one.
Besson 767 New Standard, SM 4U
Irondequoit Concert Band & Penfield Pops, Rochester NY area
F-Alphorn, Hubert Hense maker, Alderwood
Alphorn Society of Western NY